Prologue 2

I huff out a sigh and begrudgingly step away from Damien feeling my stomach tighten with worry. Lowering my head I notice Damien place a hand to the back of my neck, succeeding in calming my nerves. He had always had this effect on me, keeping me calm and grounded through some horrendous times. "It's going to be okay." I hear him whisper and immediately trust in his words. Everything would indeed, be okay.

"When do we leave?" Damien asks, rubbing my neck tenderly.

"Damien." I shake my head. "You have to stay behind."

"Like hell." He shouts. "I'm not letting you anywhere near him without me."

"I have Jeriah." I remind gently and grab his hand, squeezing lightly. "I will be okay."

He runs a hand over his face groaning loudly. "You can't ask this of me Cugu."

"I can...and I am." I say with a look I hope reassures him.

"I promise you, Damien, I won't let anything happen to Cugu." Jeriah assured.

"As if YOU can prevent ANYTHING." Damien spat with malice and Jeriah staggered back as though hit. I watch his face darken with fury.

"Like you did any better." Jeriah spits, deadly quiet, eyes full of rage as he glares at Damien. 

  I clap loudly to draw their attention. I will have no fighting here, especially in regards to my person and safety.

"You both seem to forget" I say with a glare of my own. "As much as I fear him, I am fully capable of killing him should the need arise."

Both Devil and Sylph look down at their feet in shame. I sigh as I look between the two. They have never been friendly towards the other but I had never known them to get so hostile.

I wave dismissively at Jeriah, who huffs and turns away. Damien, however, looms close to tears as his anger and frustration continue to build.

  I grab Damien's shoulders and pull him closer to me, his head on my chest listening to the beat of my heart. I knew he would take the news poorly, I had hoped not this poorly though as I sigh with relief when I feel Damien's arms snake around my waist, clutching to me.

"Hush now." I say, trying to soothe him. "You are but one whisper away and I will return."

"Why can't I come?" I hear him pout and a smile tugs at my lips.

"You will kill him." I reply, placing a kiss on the top of his head. "You know you want to."

"He took you from me." He mumbles into my chest, taking a deep breath. "'course I want to kill him."

"He did." I nod. "He took me from you, but he has to stay alive."

"Unfortunately." I hear Jeriah mumble kicking at a rock, and I smile fully then.

Damien's breathing eventually evens out and his anger begins to slowly ebb from him as he continues to hold me close. I lift his head and look gently down at him with a reassuring smile

He sighs loudly and stands to full height, barely shorter than I, and places a gentle kiss on my forehead. I feel it again, a swirl of magic surrounding me.

"What is this one for?" I ask, raising my brow in curiosity.

"If he hurts you or makes you cry, it will summon me to you immediately." He explained. "If that happens, I WILL kill him."

"Then let's hope that bastard knows his place." Jeriah said, walking towards us.

"If he knew his place, I wouldn't need to do this." Damien reminded. "This is a warning to you Jeriah. I don't care if the world burns because of it, I'll kill him. So keep that piece of shit in check."

"I got it." Jeriah assured raising his hands in surrender. "Do you need anything before we leave Cugu?"

I shake my head. There is nothing I need here that I cannot get elsewhere. Maybe my journals, but I know my own story best so even that I can do without. "No."

"Let's go then." He says, reaching towards me.

I reluctantly drop Damien's hand and reach for Jeriah's outstretched one, holding it firmly in mine. It had been hundreds of years since I had last set foot out of this place and the safety it gave me, so leaving it terrifies me.

"I will return Damien." I say, my voice shaking with apprehension and fear. A tear falls from my eye as my surroundings shift and disappear.

I blink and look around me to the light and noise surrounding me now. The dark sky is a clear indication that the sun has set and yet the world around me is so frighteningly awake, juxtaposed against the life I had just left.

Laughter and conversation fill the air around me as panic grips my chest, squeezing tightly, making it hard to breathe. Isolation did this to me, I have only myself to blame.

"Why would you bring me here?" I ask as I clamp my hands to my ears trying to dampen the noise. "Why would you do this to me?"

"I'm sorry." He says, worried. "I didn't know He's just up ahead in that bar."

I am in my own panic now, clutching my ears and squeezing my eyes shut against the onslaught of noise and wanting nothing more than to hide away back at home. Back where I know it to be safe. I feel something heavy fall to my head and I hesitantly open my eyes. I see Jeriah through the slit of fabric surrounding me, his shoulders and arms now bare to the cold. He covered me with his jacket, I notice, as he cocoones me safely. The lights are no longer as bright and the noises fade as the panic begins to ease from me.

"Better?" He asks.

I nod briskly and he responds with his own head tilt.

I am drug along behind him as he wades through person after person, ensuring I touch no one along the way and before long I hear a door open. I keep hidden long enough for the door to slam close. I remove the jacket surrounding me and am immediately hit with the stench of alcohol and smoke. I bink furiously, ignoring the sting of the air, yet again at a loss. Though this sight is much darker, the creatures here are huddled in intimate groups, speaking loudly in order to be heard over the atmosphere they created. Their reasons for such redundant behavior became clearer, seeing a particularly obnoxious individual, whom I believe was thoroughly convinced that the volume of his voice contributed to his self worth. 

"Lehmme tell yuh sumthin, lehmme t-ell yuh sumthin… BITCH. Ay sehd lehmme t-ell yah sumthin… Yur hawt." The man slured at a younger looking woman who is trying her best to leave the situation.

"Ignore him." Jeriah insists, as he moves me towards the center of the room.

"Jeriah." I growl. "This place is no better."

"I know." He smiles. "We won't be here long."

He grabs my arm and together we make our way through the crowd and towards a less occupied area of the 'bar'. The tables are nearly empty here and the atmosphere dark and oddly foreboding as I sense his presence. He is absolutely within this building. I was sure the panic was easing and yet with this knowledge it builds again and I am near hyperventilating.

"Oi, Jeriah." I heard a bellow, the voice smooth and beautiful, despite the tone. "

"Hey Morgan." Jeriah greets cheerily while looking towards a starkly white woman behind a counter.

She is tall and elegant, with stark white skin and stunning gray eyes. Her long red hair is tied behind her neck to keep from her face. She has ample bosom barely contained in the shirt she wears and pants that ride low on her hips. She wears an apron around her hips decorated in round circles with rather odd sayings etched into them.

"It's Morgana, luv." She replies with an accent I am unfamiliar with. "Are you daft?"

"Gorgeous, lovely, darling, shining light of my life." Jeriah smirks, "I could kiss that glare right off your face."

"What can I do you for?" She asks, wiping the counter with a damp cloth.

"Is he here?" Jeriah asks. I grab his sleeve and pull. He turns and looks at me with worry.

"He is here." I say, determined. "He is in the corner at the far left."

"I guess that answers that." Jeriah laughs. "We'll grab him and go, yeah?" 

"As you say pet." Morgana bows her head and gestures to the back of the bar, the far left corner to be precise. "Ease up that look luv." She says to me, "Ain't no one gonna bite you."

I swallow against the lump in my throat and nod. Logically I know I am safe but that does nothing to quell the emotions that threaten to destroy me from the inside. My stomach twists in knots and I swallow repeatedly, trying to ease the nausea forcing its way up my throat.

"It's okay Cugu." Jeriah says, holding my head close to his chest as I continue to panic. "Deep breaths sweetheart. Deep breaths."

I take many deep breaths in quick succession, feeling myself becoming light headed and realize that I might be breathing incorrectly. 

"Slowly." Jeriah admonishes. "Slow, deep breaths." 

I do as I am told. I take my breaths more slowly and listen to the rhythmic thumping of Jeriah's heart as my panic begins to ebb. Fear still present, yet less likely to drown me in my own thoughts.

"There we go." Jeriah soothes. "Better?"

I nod and continue my slow breathing until the last vestige of my panic morphs into nothingness.

Jeriah grabs my hand and with a nod to Morgana we make our way to the darkest corner of the bar. Now I finally face him. His face could change. His body and posture even, none of that mattered as the soul within this body was the very one that had destroyed me. I will never forget this man. 

He is sitting at a small table, head hunched over a glass of what could only be sub-par liquor, and he was obviously drowning in his own sorrows.

"Isaac?" Jeriah questioned. "I was gone one day. The shit happened to you?"

"Evelyn left me." He mumbles, taking a drink of his glass. "Took the kids and went to her mom's"

So his name is now Isaac. In this body, it suited him, I suppose. He is shorter than he had once been, with shaggy unkempt brown hair and a slightly overweight body. He wore dirty clothes that smelled of smoke, a sickening smell I was not accustomed to.

"And?" Jeriah questions. "You were shit to her, did you think she was supposed to just stay with you?"

"Fuck you!" Isaac yells, downing the rest of his drink. "What would you know mister happily married."

"I know not to take my bullshit out on my wife." Jeriah huffs. "Anyway, let's go. See gotta talk."

Isaac looks up towards us and shrugs "And?"

"And" Jeriah grabs Isaac by the back of his shirt, lifting him from his seat. "We are going to have a nice looong chat tonight." 

I follow Jeriah as he drags Isaac to the farthest corner of the bar and yanked open a door, throwing Isaac out first before following behind him. Isaac had fallen onto his side and did not look ready to right himself groaning in pain. I look around me and notice a few refuse bins and not much else in the vast alley we had found ourselves in shifting my eyes to the person on the ground.

"What the fuck, Jeriah." Isaac spat, slurring his words slightly. "The fuck I do?"

Jeriah's fury could be seen on his face as he lifted a fist and brought it slamming to the ground between Isaac's splayed legs. "I just don't like you." He said, lifting his hand and revealing a crack in the ground. "And today your face especially pissed me off."

"I didn't do NOTHING." Isaac yells, scrambling to move away from an obviously furious Jeriah. "You keep tellin' me all these things I supposedly did but come on man, that wasn't me."

"It was you." I say, my voice cracking as the fear finds me again. I can not let this man hold so much power over me. "Everything he has accused you of, you did." 

"Who the fuck are you?" He spits, fumbling to stand, swaying side to side as he finally gets his feet beneath him. "Do I know you?"

"Once upon a time." I say, shaking my head at the drunkard before me. Once he was terrifying to me and now he is nothing and yet the fear lingers. "You knew me, once upon a time." 

Isaac leans his weight onto the wall behind him and takes a deep breath. His eyes are closed and his posture stiff, holding his arms to his chest. He looks the definition of miserable. 

"Because of you" Jeriah began, stalking towards Isaac, anger showed clearly in his eyes making them shine brightly. "I had to bring Cugu with me. And I really didn't want to bring Cugu with me." His voice is venomous.

"Who the hell is Cugu?" Isaac asks, breathing heavily. 

"Don't worry." Jeriah chuckles maliciously. "You'll remember, and when you do" Here he grabs Isaac's face with such force I hear bone cracking. "I'll be sure to make you suffer."

The wind picks up speed, surrounding us in a vortex as our surroundings begin to morph and shift. Where there was once a darkened alley with bins, now there is a home, brightly lit and lived in. 

We are in a living room of sorts with a set of couches and a table decorating the mostly barren room, an ornate rug spayed under the table. No pictures or the like to identify the owner of the abode we had warped to.

"Where are we?" I ask.

"This is my house." Jeriah answers with a hint of pride. "I have a job and everything. Like one of those human people."

I chuckle looking behind me. I notice Jeriah is still holding Isaac by the face and honestly it is a sight to see; however, sadly, this would not do. I had to end this or the night would drag on and I could already feel a headache forming. 

"Release him." I sigh, taking a seat on the beige couch before me. "And bring me a drink." 

Jeriah walked towards me, quite literally dragging Isaac behind him. He lifts the human and dumps him into a seat farthest from me and points a finger at him. "Do NOT move." 

With that Jeriah turns and leaves, presumably to fetch me a drink. 

Isaac grabs at his chin and opens and closes his mouth, wincing at the pain. I feel no pity for him. He looks towards me and my heart stops. My eyes are wide as I continue to watch him massage the ache from his face. A few more movements of his jaw and he seems satisfied with the results and points a glare at me.

"Who are you?" He asks with more clarity than I had assumed he would be capable of.

"I am Cugu." I say. "I am here to help with your awakening."

"Right, that thing Jeriah's been nagging me about." Isaac waves his hand dismissively. "And what's this awakening anyway?"

"It is the return of your memories prior to your banishment." I explain, turning my face away from him. "They are vital to the future."

"Right." Isaac grunts. "The future." 

"We could always make you do what we need." Jeriah announced his arrival. He placed a cup before me with a smile. "It's coffee." 

I nod and take the cup filled with tan liquid and hesitantly take a drink, wrinkling my nose in distaste. I am not sure I like coffee.

"Too much sugar?" Jeriah asks, grabbing the cup and taking a sip. "Seems fine." He shrugs, placing the cup back on the table. "I'll get something else for you in a bit."

I nod, not really caring much about what I would be drinking. I was merely thirsty, though water would have been preferable.

"And what do you need me for?" Isaac grumbled. 

"You need to make a choice." I say, taking another sip of the foul liquid, too acidic and bitter, yet somehow, vastly too sweet for me. 

"But before that, Cugu here needs to tell you a story." Jeriah says. "Something you need to remember before making that choice."

"Yipee." Isaac sneered. "What are you gonna do? Read me a bedtime story?'

"I could always take the choice from you." I reply bitterly. "Though that will not accomplish what we are here to do."

"I say fuck him." Jeriah announced.

"Why am I here then?" I ask. "If we are going to force this choice on him, have him possibly reject the transition and kill him body and soul, why am I even here?"

"Wait...kill me? What do you mean kill me?" Isaac asks with an edge of panic to his voice.

"I mean exactly what I say. You have a choice to make, and that choice cannot be forced upon you. Should we force you into the choice we want, it could fully destroy you. Body and soul." I explain. "I particularly find that option to be burdensome, though preferable."

"Come on man." Isaac is in full panic now. "Why do I have to die?"

"You don't." I placate, taking a sip of my 'coffee'. "No one stated you had to die, we merely stated that you will die should you force our hand."

"And all I have to do is listen to a story?" He asks, looking at the both of us for confirmation. I nod and his panic seems to ease. "Okay. I'll…I'll listen."

"Isaac." I begin. "This word is filled with more than humans. There are creatures you could not even begin to fathom. 

"Take Jeriah for instance." I continue. "He is a Sylph and I am devil born." 

"So you're crazy crazy. Like Jeriah here." He says, rolling his eyes and leaning further into his seat.

"How drunk were you when you were brought here?" I ask, baffled. "The wind, quite literally, brought us to this abode, and you doubt us still?"

I sigh and place my hand, palm up, upon the table. With a slight bit of mana manipulation, I begin to produce a sphere of pure light within my hand. Isaac's eyes widen in amazement and fear as I morph the sphere from light to water and finally settle on pure dark matter. Deadly, and extremely hard to control. 

"Uh...what?" Isaac could barely form a sentence.

"Oh, NOW he's shocked." Jeriah says. "Not when I fuck him up or bring him here with the power 'of ma mind.' But now?" 

"As I was saying." I say, giving Jeriah a hard stare and extinguishing the magic within my palm. "There are creatures you could not hope to fathom in this word."

"So...what are you?" Isaac asks, still looking at my closed fist.

"Me?" I sigh. "As I said, I am devil born."

"So what you're saying is, that stuff in fantasy books and like the bible...they exist?"

"Yes!" I nod. "Though to be blunt, many of our kind are nearing extinction."

"Why?" 

"Humans hunted us. Hunted us to the brink of death. The rest fled and are in the ether now. Somewhere humans are forbidden entry."

"Oh."

"So I brought Cugu here to tell you a story." Jeriah intersected leaning forward. The subject hitting a rather sore spot for him.

"That is indeed why I am here." I nod. "To tell you a story."

"Well then. Get on with it."

I take a sip from my coffee and begin my tale.